Researchers looked at death certificates from the United States in 2020 that listed COVID-19 as a cause of death. They examined the official diagnosis codes on these certificates to understand what other health conditions were recorded when someone died with COVID-19.
The study found that for 5.5% of these death certificates, COVID-19 was the only condition listed. For the remaining certificates that included other diagnoses, 97% had at least one other health condition that could be part of a chain of events leading to death or was a significant contributing factor. This means most people who died with COVID-19 listed on their certificate also had other recorded health issues.
This was a surveillance study that describes what was written on death certificates. It does not determine whether COVID-19 directly caused these deaths or how severe the other conditions were. The results help show the complex picture of health that often exists when COVID-19 is involved, but they do not change our understanding of the virus's seriousness. Readers should see this as a snapshot of recorded data from one year, not as a measure of individual risk.